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UPDATE: Inflows at Lake Michie and Little River reservoirs have climbed above historic lows for this date as a result of the rains earlier. At the Little River they were up to 39 cfs at 5:15 pm. Flat River at Lake Michie is a little slow in updating - they're still showing 8.7 cfs at 4:45. The magic number is 31 cfs. Anything above that exceeds our daily demand and helps to refill the reservoirs. Based on recent rain events, we should see inflows at Lake Michie getting up above 40 cfs in the very near future. So this rain could add another 4 or 5 days to our supply. If the rains forecast for next week come in while the ground is still wet, that could help a lot more.
Labels: drought
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9 Comments:
Amen to that.
There was a story on WUNC this morning about Raleigh going into Pahse II restrictions. Someone, maybe the mayor, said he would rather apologize later to residents for putting the restrictions in place when it wasn't necessary, than run out of water. Apologize? For what? It's time everyone started treating water the same way money should be treated - save it now in case you need it later.
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Anonymous, at 12:34 PM
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Durham Bull Pen, at 3:01 PM
Beautiful!
Since the drought, I don't think I'll ever look at a rainy day the same way again.
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Durham Bull Pen, at 3:02 PM
Woo hoo!
The Flat Rivir is at 102 cfs as of 11:45 PM and the flow is still rising. This is higher than at any point in the last 31 days.
The Little River is at 33 cfs and appears to have peaked already. This is also higher than any point in the past 31 days.
The Eno River is at 52 cfs, so hopefully the City has it's big ol' straw in the Eno sucking up water and is pumping it into Teer Quarry.
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Anonymous, at 12:35 AM
This morning the Little River spiked back up over 100 cfs, and the Flat River was up to 300 cfs. Even 5 hours at 400 cfs equates to more than 3 days of water at around 20 million gallons per day. Yesterday's rains could conceivably add a week or two to our supply. And if those rains come early next week as forecast we cold push our supply well into the summer months.
Still, it's worth remembering that median inflows for this time of year have historically been in the 150 cfs range. And that's day in and day out, not spiking for a day or two at a time. To put that in perspective, each day has added about 5 days to our water supply in January and February, so historically, those two months give us almost a year's worth of water. (And that's "premium, easily accessible" water, not the dregs under the intake valves.)
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Barry, at 9:21 AM
It's a little bit of an overstatement to say that we get a year's worth of water in the early months. We usually fill up the reservoirs and then spill quite a bit more downstream. This year, we're just trying to get back to full.
We don't have to reach median levels again to get out of the woods. We just need to get to full reservoirs by about mid-to-late April, when demand gets high and the rains start to slow.
And then, of course, we need to get something resembling our normal compliment of summer thunderstorms. And a tropical storm remnant or two in the fall never hurts.
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Unknown, at 1:58 AM
Well, if our reservoirs could handle the capacity, we would get a year's worth of water out of January and February, based on historic median inflows in those months.
Inflows need to average around 31 cfs to meet current demand, rising to about 40 - 45 cfs to meet historic summer months demand. These numbers are significantly lower than the historic medians for this time of year. That we're not even close to those numbers on most days is a sign how severe our shortage really is. We should be adding to our supply on a daily basis right now, and on most days. we're not. I do expect to see the "premium" water numbers jump to 150 days based on last week's rains when the city updates its site.
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Barry, at 9:42 AM
143 days is the new number according to the city.
Usage is ticking up as well.
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Barry, at 12:09 PM
Good guess on the premium water.
As of 2/4, 143 days of premium, 209 total. The Flat River is still at 35 cfs, Little River is at 11 cfs. Both lakes should come up a bit more.
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Anonymous, at 10:25 PM
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